Our literary events are open to booking now!
|
Bookings for the Frome Festival literary events are now open. To get your tickets, follow the TICKETS links below.
We have something happening every day of the ten days of the festival. Most author talks will be about an hour, with time after for book signings. Download the Words at Frome Festival programme here.
|
|
|
Saturday 27 June
Writers in Residence
|
Our annual writing challenge is to create a short story from an unseen prompt in 3 hours. Writers will be in and around shops and cafés in central Frome.
|
Winners will be announced at the Short Story Competition Awards Day, 12 July (see below).
|
10am–1pm Venues around Frome
|
Saturday 4 July
Frome Publishing Fair
|
Our popular annual event within Frome Festival, the fair has a great atmosphere and a high level of interest from visitors. Stallholders include publishers, booksellers, authors, artists, designers and publishing service providers.
|
Help and advice about writing and publishing is available throughout the day.
|
10am–3.30pm
Silk Mill Gallery and Courtyard FREE ENTRANCE |
|
Caroline Greenman
Corpus Case in Court Step into a dramatised 'trial' exploring the boyhood autobiography of Arthur Crocker. Arthur was born in 1903 at Frome police station, where his father PC George Crocker lived and worked. Caroline, Arthur's granddaughter, provides evidence for cross-examination in their home at Frome's former Police Station Courtroom. The book launches at the Frome Publishing Fair, 4 July. See the Mercer Books stand.
|
4–5pm
Bojangles Dance Studio, 1 Christchurch Street West FREE EVENT |
|
Kate Fox and Union Jill
Sea Change A joyous and lyrical dive into the marine. Stand-up poet Kate Fox and acoustic music duo Union Jill explore powerful currents of personal transformation, sea swimming, and ecological shift. Part gig, part spoken word performance, part ritual, this is a journey into the depths full of lightness and gorgeous harmonies.
|
5.30–6.30pm
Silk Mill Gallery £10 |
Sunday 5 July
Photo: Celie-Nigoumi
|
|
Photo: Faye Thomas Photography
|
Dr Emily Hauser
Mythica In her book, Mythica, award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends and the real heroes of the epic poems, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
'Bold and intellectually thrilling ...' Tom Holland, historian and co-host of 'The Rest is History' podcast |
1.30–3pm
Silk Mill Gallery £10 |
Monday 6 July
Photo: Eleanor Lindsay-Fynn
|
Winnie M Li
In conversation with Helena Drysdale Winnie M Li is an activist, teacher and author. What We Left Unsaid is her third critically acclaimed novel. Winnie’s writing explores gender and racial inequality, trauma, and displacement. With the award-winning author Helena Drysdale (Mother Tongues) she will explore such issues as travel, language and identity.
|
7.30–9pm
Archangel Naval Room £10 |
Tuesday 7 July
|
Dawn Gorman
The Nature of Hope – writing workshop Dawn believes poetry should be everywhere. She puts it on beermats, uses it to work with people with memory loss, facilitates writing workshops, organises poetry events and runs international poetry competitions. She has performed in New York, Paris, London – and lots of smaller places. And now she brings her creativity to a Frome Festival workshop.
|
2–4pm
Frome Library £20 |
Photo: Amber Perry
|
Jenny Mitchell
Poet in the Community Jenny will perform her multi-award-winning poems and share work from the new anthology 'Everyone Started Singing'. This will be followed by an interview with Roz Dace on Jenny's work, including the challenges of writing about a contested history, and why she thinks poetry in the community is under-rated. The event will conclude with a Q&A from the audience and another short performance.
|
5–6pm
Archangel Naval Room £10 |
|
|
Wednesday 8 July
Photo: Roy-Riley
|
|
|
Mark Ecob
Book cover design Mark Ecob is one of the UK’s leading book cover designers. He is a mentor, tutor and competition judge. His work has been recognised by D&AD, The British Book Awards, and The Academy of British Cover Design. He has exhibited and given many talks, including at the Hay Festival. And now we will give him a warm welcome at Frome Festival.
|
7.30–9pm
Archangel Naval Room £10 |
Thursday 9 July
Photo, Kate-Hordern: Penny-Leaver-Green
|
Clare Wallace and Kate Hordern
Agents' talk and consultations Ready to publish your novel? This is your chance to submit an extract of your manuscript for feedback from a top literary agent in a relaxed, face-to-face meeting.
Clare Wallace represents a boutique list of commercial adult fiction in both the UK & US. She was shortlisted for Agent of the Year by the British Book Awards. Kate Hordern founded Kate Hordern Literary Agency, KHLA, in 1999 – an independent literary agency with a growing list of clients. |
TALK:
10.30am–noon Silk Mill Gallery £10 CONSULTATIONS:
1–4pm £50 (pre-arranged meeting). Email us to book a place. |
Photo: John Macarthur
|
|
Friday 10 July
|
|
Saturday 11 July
|
|
Sunday 12 July
|
Short Story Awards
YOUNG WRITERS' COMPETITION
WRITER IN RESIDENCE SHORT STORY COMPETITION Celebrate writers of all ages as the winners of the Young Writer Competition and the Writers in Residence contest are announced. The author Claire Fuller (winner of the Costa Novel Award in 2021) will reveal the winning entries in the Frome Festival Short Story Competition. Winning stories will be read out. |
11am–1pm
Merlin Theatre FREE WITH BOOKING |
Photo, Lily-Dunn: Lara-Downie
|
Lily Dunn
in conversation with Harriet Derioz Have you ever wondered what goes into crafting real-life experience into a book? Lily Dunn, author of Into Being: the radical craft of memoir and its power to transform will explore with Harriet Derioz how life writing can help us to better understand and transcend the past. Creating narrative from personal experience is so much more than simply finding the story and sharing it with the world.
|
4.30–6pm
Archangel Naval Room £10 |
